CARESTON--RETREAT OF MONTROSE. 297 miles, and this he reached about midnight, notwithstanding that they had had much skirmishing with a detachment of the Covenanters, who only gave up the pursuit when evening closed upon them. Montrose's army had now marched about fifty miles, had been engaged in the dreadful work of storming Dundee, and had had no sleep for two successive nights! Yet he could not remain at Arbroath, with the fear of the ocean on one side, into which the superior force of the Covenanters could easily have driven them, and with their principal detachment on the other side at Brechin, from which they could as easily have crushed them. Instead, therefore, of allowing his men to rest, or holding further to the north by the coast road, he cut directly through Forfarshire in a north-westerly line, and crossing the South Esk at Careston, landed there in the grey of the morning. This was now the 5th of April. From about sunset on the 3d, the army had been on constant march and duty of the most arduous and fatiguing character, without a moment's repose. Montrose was well acquainted with the roads of his native county, and knew that, besides having the Grampians at his back, he had a relative by affinity, though opposite in politics, in Sir Alexander Carnegie, the proprietor of Careston; he therefore led his troops thither, and instantly on their arrival they squatted themselves on the lawn before the castle. Meanwhile, General Baillie, who was quartered at Forfar, had little dreamt of Montrose's dexterous movements, and concluding that, between his own army and Urrey's, he had his enemy simply for the cutting up, was so greatly mortified to find Montrose had marched round about him, that he set off with all speed in pursuit. On hearing of his approach, Montrose, ever mindful of his family motto, N'oubliez, had his men again on the move: this, however, was not so easily carried out as on former occasions, for nature was so completely exhausted that the sentinels had to prick many of the soldiers with their swords before they would awaken. The fastnesses of Glenesk (where they had been quartered on previous occasions) were again their rendezvous; thither they retreated with all speed, and once more bade defiance to the superior force of their pursuers. So ended "the celebrated retreat of the Marquis of Montrose," which was followed by the succession of marvellous victories down to his defeat at Philiphaugh, on the 13th of September following. The rest of his history is well known: fleeing to the Continent, he reappeared, for the first time thereafter, in arms for Charles II., and was defeated at Invercarron, on the northern border of Ross-shire, by Colonel Strachan, in March 1650. Afraid of detection, he threw his military cloak, and the star and ribbon which he so much. cherished as the approving gift of his late Sovereign, to the winds; he exchanged his warlike habit with a peasant whom he met in the fields, and, seeking shelter from his enemies, he was betrayed by M'Leod of Assynt, one of his old followers, for the reward of four hundred bolls of meal!1 He was taken to Edinburgh in the mean habit in which he was found-hanged on a gibbet in the Grassmarket, with a copy of Bishop Wishart's Memoirs of his exploits hung around his neck—and his body, when quartered, was sent to grace the gates of the principal towns in Scotland! So died Montrose, at the early age of thirty-eight-the most accomplished general, and devoted Royalist of his own, or perhaps of any age--a sacrifice to public clamour and private hatred.2 1 Arnot, Criminal Trials, p. 234. 2 John Hill Burton, Hist. Scot. vii.; Napier, Life and Times of Montrose. CHAPTER VII. Menmuir. SECTION I. The family tomb, to whose devouring mouth In long unbroken hereditary line. POLLOK'S 'COURSE OF TIME.' Menmuir-Dedicated to St. Aidan-Its ministers-The Covenant subscribed-Danger from the Cateran-Frightened by the Royalists-Opposed the Prince-The church and its surroundings-Burial-place of the Carnegies of BalnamoonNotice of Adjutant-General Sir David Leighton, K.C.B.-The Guthries of Menmuir and Brechin--Tigerton. THE church of Menmuir was in the diocese of Dunkeld, and dedicated to St. Aidan, Bishop of Lindisfarne, whose feast is held on the 31st of August. A fountain near the church, now nearly lost by drainage, long preserved his name in the metamorphosed form of St. Iten, and was believed to be useful for effecting cures on such as were afflicted with asthma and cutaneous diseases. The church has a prominent position in the upland part of the parish, and in old times was surrounded by a marsh, hence in Moine-more, which in Gaelic implies "a great moss," the name of the district is supposed to have originated. Ninian de Spot, who is designed presbyter of the prebend of Menmuir in 1454, is the first clergyman we have found mentioned in connection with the parish; and in 1502 Mr. Walter Leslie was parson. He was perhaps a native of the city of Aberdeen, as he showed so much favour for the church of St. Nicholas of that town, as to ask and receive a licence to " big and found ane alter of Sanctis Mongow" there.1 Towards the middle of the same century," Robert Schaw, clerk, then in his eighteenth year, suffering the defect of birth as soluta genitus," had a dispensation granted by the Pope, as successor to James Hamilton in the canonry of Menmuir, with the condition that "he do not celebrate the service of the altar along with his father, nor succeed him in his benefices "2-his father being also a canon of the parent church of Dunkeld; and also from its being an old law in the Church, that ecclesiastical benefices should not be hereditary-that a son should not succeed a father in them. According to the Register of Ministers in 1567, Mr. James Melville was minister of the parish soon after the Reformation, and, as already mentioned, had also charge of Fern and Kinnell. Mr. Andro Elder, the contemporary reader of Menmuir, had "the thyrd of the vicarage," extending to about fifteen shillings and fourpence sterling. Mr. George Hallyburton, minister of Menmuir, was removed to Perth in 1644, and nominated Bishop of Dunkeld on 18th January 1662, by letters-patent. It is only when we approach the interesting era of the Covenant that much is known of the state of religion in Menmuir, and from the distinct records which exist regarding it at that period, the Covenant appears to have been so highly esteemed, that on the 6th of May 1638, the "Confession of Faith and Covenant with our God [was] openlie read, subscryvit and sworne unto be the haille congregatioune." It is in this stirring movement that the first record of the family of Carnegie occurs in connection with the history of the parish, Sir Alexander having been elected in the following September to represent the kirk-session in the General Assembly at 1 On 9th September 1502, Mr. Walter Leslie, parson of Menmuir, had full power and licence granted him, by the magistrates and council of Aberdeen, "to big and found ane alter of Sanctis Mongow, and Tovine in the triangall of thar eist end of thar queir for his fundatioun to be made at the samyn, in honour of the blissit trinitie, the blissit Virgin moder Mary, Sanctis Nicholace, and specialie of the saidis Sanctis," etc.-(Spald. Miscel. v. p. 34.) 2 (A.D. 1550)-Book of the Official of St. Andrews, Pref. p. xxix. MENMUIR-POLITICAL TROUBLES. 301 Glasgow, on the 21st November 1638, and again at Aberdeen, 28th July 1640. From that period, and indeed throughout the whole course of the civil wars, the parish, from its proximity to the Grampians, was often the rendezvous of the army; and, like the people of Edzell at a later time, the inhabitants were. oftener than once surprised on Sundays, while at their devotions, by the presence of the soldiers. An idea of the sadly unsettled state of affairs may be had from the following notices in the Parochial Register, which is among the most complete and interesting of any in the district. Soon after the renewal of the Covenant, and on the 23d of March 1644, it is recorded that there was "no conventioun becaus of ye troubles;" and on the 13th of the following February, "no conventioun again until ye 17 of August, becaus y enemie was still in ye fields, so that the minister durst not be seen in ye parish." But on the 17th of August matters bore even a more formidable aspect than before; and just two days after Kilsyth had been won through the skilfulness of the Marquis of Montrose, it is recorded "that upon ye intelligence of the approach of ye enemie, the people fled out of ye kirk in the midst of the sermon." On the 17th of November 1645, after the total defeat of the Royalists, and while they were skirmishing here and there before their final breaking up, the presence of the sixteenth Earl of Crawford and his army in the parish on a Sunday, spread terror over the whole district, and is thus mentioned by the session-clerk, in the true dignity of a friend of the Parliament:-" No preaching, because ane partie of the enemies' horse, coming throw the shyre, under Ludowick Lindsay, were in the parish." After this visit of Earl Ludovick, however, matters assumed a comparatively tranquil aspect :-the "declaration against the traiterous band wer read" in April 1646; and on 17th December 1648, the Covenant was again read in presence of the Congregation, and "subscrived by the minister, and all |